Meet Grace Chow and Maddie Stier—two sisters whose competitive fire has fueled a lifelong running journey that spans from childhood ice hockey rinks in Cleveland to military bases across the globe. Grace, a 7-year Marine Corps veteran and mother of a 1-year-old, embodies the "do what Grace wants to do" mentality that led her to run her first marathon at just 14 years old. Maddie, a Dallas-based mother of three and Sloths running group regular, represents the Type-A planner who thrives on structure and strategic training.
What drives these sisters isn't just sibling rivalry—though Grace admits she originally started running the mile in track simply because Maddie did it first. It's their shared understanding that running is both a personal challenge and a way to maintain identity through life's major transitions. Grace has carried her running through multiple military relocations, deployments to Italy, a CrossFit phase, and new motherhood, always finding ways to adapt without losing the core drive that had her logging 16-mile runs as a teenager. Maddie channels her competitive nature into meticulous training, showing up to track workouts with faster runners and hanging on "for dear life" because she knows that discomfort leads to growth.
Both sisters are currently training for December's California International Marathon—each balancing motherhood with serious training goals. Grace, working with her first-ever coach, hopes to break her 2:57 PR while managing early morning runs around her 1-year-old's schedule. Maddie targets a sub-2:50 breakthrough while coordinating training around three children. Their approach couldn't be more different: Grace thrives on flying by the seat of her pants while learning structure for the first time, while Maddie lives by routine and strategic planning.
Whether it's Grace running cupless marathons in Hawaii while dealing with dehydration, or Maddie maximizing every minute of training time when leaving her husband with the kids, these sisters prove that the drive to run fast comes from embracing challenge, supporting each other across distances, and never losing sight of the competitive spark that started it all in middle school track. They demonstrate that motherhood doesn't diminish athletic ambition—it sharpens the focus and makes every training opportunity count.
